


Our World

by thesnowyswan



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Fluffy I guess, M/M, instance of homo/biphobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 16:39:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15733344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesnowyswan/pseuds/thesnowyswan
Summary: A family trip to Tesco opens up a can of worms that Aaron isn’t willing to let fester.





	Our World

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is a story with Aaron, Robert, Liv and Seb as a small fam. If that is not appealing to you then please don't read this and definitely do not leave me a comment with your rude sentiments. I don't appreciate them and they aren't wanted, I will simply delete them.

If someone asked Aaron to write the end of his and Robert’s affair, this is not what he would have chosen; them married and standing in the middle of Tesco debating the differences between white and brown spaghetti. It might have been the dream, but he couldn’t have expected it or anticipated Liv or Seb’s involvement in their lives, Liv off to find the Nutella and all the other stuff that Robert won’t let them get on the first pass, Seb flailing somewhat happily in the child seat of the trolley as Robert shows him both types of pasta. He’s due to nap so it’s a fine line between interest and not making him overtired before they get him home.

“Just get both if it matters that much to ya,” Aaron gives in as he starts pushing the trolley and Seb.

“I’m not getting both to just let one sit in the cupboard, and don’t think I didn’t see both you and Liv turn your nose up at that spag bol with the wholewheat one.”

Aaron refuses to feel bad, Robert did the spaghetti to his preference which is pretty much al dente and Aaron prefers his in its full boiled glory.

“Then get the normal?” He’s not really sure where his input is necessary in all of this because Robert ends up putting both in and as he does, Seb reaches up and grabs his hair.

“Ow, ta, Seb, let go.”

It’s his new thing and it makes him _love_ Liv. Luckily, Aaron’s just had his sides shaved so he is exempt from it for the most part. Doesn’t stop him snorting and coughing as Robert tries to unlatch his son’s hand from his hair.

“Aaron—” Robert asks for help and Aaron pulls his lips between his teeth as he tries to get Seb’s attention.

“Come on, Seb, let Daddy go.”

And just like that, they tip into overtired and Seb’s lip worries before he lets out an almighty wail. He does let Robert go who stands up, unclips Seb and scoops him out for a cuddle.

“Alright, enough of that, hmm.” Robert bounces Seb on his hip and rubs his back, but he keeps finding new energy to cry. Aaron can see the tension in Robert’s shoulders the longer it goes on and it isn’t going to help any, so he squeezes Robert’s side and it gets him a small smile as Robert turns Seb so that he can see Aaron too, and it helps. Slowly, Seb calms, Robert’s shirt is a write-off, but Seb doesn’t care as he absently grabs and releases it in his tiny fist, head on Robert’s shoulder.

Robert is about to put Seb back, but Aaron stops him, “He’s quiet, you take him, I’ll push this.”

They get going from the pasta past the sauces and they pass two middle-aged women who Aaron had in the corner of his eye, tutting.

Aaron hadn’t realised, but Robert had clocked them just the same, shoulders tense, and they wait until Robert and Aaron have passed before they ‘under their breath’ mention that ‘this is why _that_ sort of thing doesn’t work, it’s not natural’.

Aaron focuses his initial spark of anger in forcing Robert to keep walking. They just got Seb settled and he isn’t about to be the one to set him off again by kicking off at two old bitches in Tesco. They encounter Liv in crisps and she trades looks with Aaron and he wills her to understand. She puts what she’s got in the trolley before she puts her arms out for Seb and Aaron’s keys.

“Hey, let the boring old guys get this, we’ll go to the car,” Liv tells Seb as Robert reluctantly hands him over. He strokes the back of Seb’s head as Liv takes his hand and waves it at Robert. Surprisingly, Seb just snuggles into Liv’s t-shirt and lets her take him without a fuss.

Aaron takes Robert to the first till, ignoring the fact that they’ve not got half their shopping and when Robert tries to point it out, Aaron just brushes him aside, “It’ll wait, we can come back or do it online, it doesn’t matter.”

How right Aaron is about Robert’s upset shows in the fact that Robert doesn’t fight him, he just follows Aaron as he unpacks their trolley onto the conveyer belt. It hurts, but Robert unconsciously keeps a level distance from him until Aaron pushes the trolley in front of them, ready to pack it at the other end, and Robert hugs himself to Aaron’s back.

“Sorry,” Robert whispers against his neck.

Aaron tips his head to it’s resting against Robert’s and then nudges him when it’s their turn and they pack their bags in silence.

 

 

Robert pushes the trolley out and heads towards Aaron’s car, but Aaron stops him and pulls him over to a bench. It’s a good Sunday, sunny, but not too hot. They were going to take Liv and Seb to the pub for tea after Seb’s midday nap.

Aaron doesn’t say anything as he plonks himself down and Robert sits next to him while swerving the trolley around to the side of the bench.

“What—?” Robert starts, but Aaron just laces his right hand with Robert’s free left one. He twists them so that his hand is palm up and covered by Robert’s and his ring is gleaming in the sun. Aaron rubs Robert’s knuckle and he lets out a sigh.

Aaron didn’t want to have to poke, but he prods, “So?”

Robert tries to play dumb with his silence.

“Both of us, remember, talkin’,” Aaron reminds him and Robert squints as he looks up at the sun. “And you’re tellin’ me that some old bat in Tesco tellin’ you how to raise your son doesn’t upset you?”

“It wasn’t about Seb,” Robert shakes his head, “being ‘motherless’ or whatever. He has a mum. Even if he didn’t, he’s got us.”

There’s more tense silence, but then Robert sighs again, “It’s different when a bloke comes at you, it’s just nonsense, ain’t it? Posturing.”

“But they’re someone’s mum and they’re telling their kids that what we have isn’t right.”

“Nothing was right until I met you. It was all a cheap suit that sagged in places, pinched in others, it just wasn’t right for me, and it wasn’t even just my bisexuality. There wasn’t a person who was right _for me_.”

Aaron squeezes Robert’s hand, and he squeezes back, not finished, “I hate that it bothers me, what other people say, especially around Seb.”

People teaching him what Robert was taught his whole life, what Aaron had felt deep inside himself for such a long time.

“It doesn’t just go overnight,” Aaron says, he has to squint too because the sun is really getting up there, “Part of me is always wanting to belt someone over what they say. You just learn it ain’t worth it.”

“And to let it go?”

“Yeah, or you can sit on a rock hard bench outside Tesco and tell me about it.”

Robert smiles, “’cause I’ve always got you?”                        

“Well, ain’t that what all this marriage business is about?” Aaron thumbs his own ring and Robert watches him. “You’ll probably die of old age waiting for the world to change, Rob. It sucks, but as long as you’re happy, what can they really say?”

“I know, I just, I love you. No one would bat an eyelid if I brought a woman with me, so why is it such a big deal that it’s you?”

“You know why.”

“Yeah, but still—”

Aaron feels a sense of sorrow for the teenager Robert never got to be. He’d have been an activist, fighting for the cause. Maybe Aaron would have even heard about bisexual Robert Sugden from Vic. He’d have hated him, flaunting his ‘gayness’, but maybe he’d have appreciated his existence too.

It sends him leaning over to give Robert a kiss, one he accepts with startled lips, but doesn’t pull away from. His hand comes up to cup Aaron’s face and they part with matching smiles.

“World didn’t end,” Aaron points out.

“I get it,” Robert stretches his legs, readying to get up. Aaron uses their joint hands to stop him from getting up. Robert turns and gives Aaron a kiss back, his left hand pulling Aaron’s thigh so that he turns into him. This is pushing the borders of acceptable behaviour on a Sunday. Robert ends his kiss but doesn’t move away, he just breathes Aaron in, “I’m not ashamed of you, Aaron. I’m just tired of the world try’na make me be.”

Possibly the greatest plot-twist after Robert’s first ‘I love you’, and Aaron lets it wash over him.

“I never wanted to date a bloke, when I first came out.” He doesn’t know why it falls out of him, but it does. It’s not new territory, he and Robert have talked about, maybe in more vague terms, how hard coming out was for him. “For all the reasons that upset you.”

“And then you met Jackson.”

Aaron hums, “And then Ed. None of it felt permanent though; part of me was always getting away with ‘it’ll end, it always does’.”

“And you’d be alone again.

“Even when I met you, you were only looking for a shag.” Aaron smiles as Robert makes a face and dips his head. “Oh, come on, it ain’t like I wasn’t.”

Robert looks back up, soft eyes and a gentle voice, “What changed?”

“I got to know you, didn’t I? Not that prat you pretended to be, but you, and I liked ya. I fell for ya.” To look back on it feels like steeping himself in loneliness because that’s how he felt, but he wasn’t. He knows that now. It’s just Robert’s denial overrode anything else he tried to feel. “Suddenly, I was in it. There wasn’t an end that looked good for us, but I wasn’t letting go.”

They’re both quiet for the struggles they’ve had, the hurts and wounds they’ve dealt each other.

“My point is, being ‘out and proud’, it’s hard, and to keep choosing to put yourself out there for other people’s judgement isn’t something I ever wanted, but I do it because I am proud. Of me, of you, of us. We got here all on our own and it’s ours.”

Aaron lets out a huge breath like he always does when he has a lot to say. It’s like it comes from somewhere inside him and it exhausts him to even reach that deep.

“All of that shit they throw at us, it ain’t ever gonna stick because you’re it.” _And you’re everything_. He’s the man Aaron hadn’t ever known he wanted. A little bit cracked and broken like him, but also proud, ambitious, generous and thoughtful. Someone Aaron could build a life with where it _wouldn’t_ end.

“How’d I get so lucky, huh?” Robert cups his face again, and Aaron tries to knock him off, but Robert just pinches his chin with his thumb and index finger.

“You didn’t get lucky, Robert, you had to fight too.”

That gets him quiet and looking down again. If there was anything Aaron could do, it would give him the strength he feels when he thinks about Robert.

“And I ain’t some reward that you just plucked off a tree. You fought for me. Showed me that I was right about you all along.”

“Let’s go, Liv’ll think we’ve left home we stay gone any longer.” Aaron tugs on their hands, still laced, still together.

Robert stands up just after Aaron and he pulls him ‘round so that they’re facing each other before he lets Aaron’s hand go and wraps his arms around Aaron’s shoulders for a massive snog. Aaron just pulls on Robert’s biceps as they squish together; mouths, chests, bellies. Robert’s mouth is distinctly red when they part and Robert rubs Aaron’s bottom lip with his thumb. It’s soft and intimate and much more like Robert than the version of him not twenty minutes ago with his shoulders up to his ears, barely daring to stand near Aaron.

Robert reaches for Aaron’s hand again and he doesn’t let go the whole walk back to the car, both of them awkwardly pushing the trolley.

They unpack what they’ve got into the boot and Liv eyes them suspiciously from the back where she’s sitting with Seb. He’s sleeping away in his car seat and her phone is just plopped in her lap.

“You two didn’t just go shag, did you?”

Aaron makes a face, “No, gimme my keys.”

Liv hands over Aaron’s keys as Robert goes to put the trolley in the nearest line of them, and Aaron gets in to start the ignition, waiting until Robert slips into the passenger’s side after peering in on Seb.

“We still going to the pub for summat to eat?” He asks as he pulls out. Liv agrees, but Robert hedges.

“We could try that new place a bit further out, with the fish and chips. Seb can have mushy peas.”

Aaron sees what Robert is doing, forcing himself to confront how he feels about their relationship in public. It’s unnecessary, but Aaron feels loved just the same.

“Liv?”

She shrugs, “Whatever, as long as there’s chips.”

“Fish and chips it is then,” Aaron decides as he indicates left out rather than right.

 

 

When they get home, bellies full, no further incidents later, they realise that the milk has gone off and the bacon is looking worse for wear, but it’s worth it for Robert’s peace of mind. Sat next to each other in their booth, Seb woke up on his own when they got there, so there was no more screeching as he happily played with his mushy peas in the highchair they were given. Robert kept his hand on Aaron’s thigh throughout their entire lunch, and when the landlady, Karen, a woman who reminded Aaron of someone somewhere between his mum and Diane, came out from behind the bar to give Seb a cuddle in his seat, with their permission, of course, both he and Liv got free ice cream. Liv ate both at Robert’s request because he wanted Seb to take another nap back in the car. Karen asked about Seb, how old he was, how long they’d be married, and with each question, Robert began to unspool more.

_“Aren’t you four precious? A proper little family,” She smiled wide in a way that just brightened up her whole face, “Don’t see ‘em much nowadays. Everyone’s on their phones, screaming at each other to be quiet. It’s nice to see a baby get messy.”_

_Seb looked up at the same opportune moment and threw one of his chips across to Aaron. It almost hit his coke, but not quite._

_“Ta, mate.” Aaron frowned, amused, as he picked it up and put it on his plate. Robert gently put Seb’s hand down and told him not to throw food at people._

_“Well! Enjoy your day, my lovelies, you know where I am if ya need me.”_

It’s unspoken, but it’s there. For every one, there’s another one, just the opposite. Robert kissed Aaron’s cheek and then speared his fish with his fork, still unable to let him go even to eat his tea.

It was the perfect antidote to the crap that was Tesco.

Liv heads up to her room, obviously tired out and Aaron has Seb on his hip when he hears Robert thanking her before she goes upstairs, “Thanks for taking care of him today, I got a bit upset and Aaron sorted me out.”

Her voice is all concern when she asks, “Y’alright?”

“Mmm, I’m fine. A bit silly really, I just got caught off guard is all.”

“If that’s all it is…” She sounds hesitant, but Robert gives her arm a squeeze.

“It is, and still, thank you.”

“It’s fine, he’s one of us now.”

With that, Liv disappears, and Robert comes back to where Aaron is surveying what they have and haven’t got.

“We should have stayed, really,” Robert points out and Aaron shrugs, which makes Seb laugh as he moves.

“It ain’t worth getting upset over. We only need milk really and David’s is still open.”

“I’ll go,” Robert decides as he’s still got his keys in hand as he opened the door for everyone.

“We’ll all go,” Aaron says as he follows Robert, “What? I can carry him while you carry the milk.”

“Aaron, I’m alright.”

“I know you’re alright, I just want to spend time with ya, don’t I, Seb?” Seb looks at Robert where Aaron’s pointing at him and he makes grabby hands for his dad. Robert takes him and Aaron smiles, taking Robert’s keys, “Looks like I’ll be carrying the milk then.”

Robert looks at him disapprovingly.

“What?” Aaron feigns innocence, but Robert goes with it.

“I don’t know what’s gone on here, but I don’t like it,” Robert says in a loud, conspiring voice to Seb, and Seb just burbles back at him.

“Or we could sack off getting milk till tomorrow and go upstairs?”

Robert looks at Seb and Aaron scoffs, “Not like that ya perv, I was gonna spoon ya.”

“That’s not a very nice way to talk to Daddy is it, Seb?” Robert puts him down on the sofa, in the corner and sits next to him to make sure he doesn’t fall. “How about we watch a film down here and then ‘Daddy Aaron’ can spoon me later?”

Aaron wishes he’d never said anything about that now because Robert teases him with it mercilessly.

“I doubt you should be teaching your son what ‘Daddy’ means.” Aaron flings back and Robert glares at him, but it lasts about three seconds before he laughs. Aaron carries on, “You don’t know it, Seb, but your dad was a bit of a cad in the old days.”

Seb looks around for Aaron’s voice as he comes to sit on the chair, “Really not the marrying sort. He was a wrong’un.”

“But then he turned it around,” Robert interjects, “Realised that he could be happy, and honest, and be married to someone he really loved.”

“Oh yeah, then he turned completely daft and no one ever heard from him again,” Aaron says with a finality and Seb doesn’t look impressed.

Robert scoops him up and puts him on his lap and Aaron reaches his hand out for Seb to hold, which he does.

“Truth is, Seb,” Robert says quietly as he puts chin on his son’s head, “I didn’t believe there was one person out there for me. I didn’t think there was anyone who could love me, but your stepdaddy, he always did. Best, worst, all of it, which is why he also turned daft and no one ever heard from him again.”

“Ya pillock,” Aaron lets Seb’s hand go and Robert stands up with him. He didn’t nap in the car like Robert wanted so he needs to go down now or he won’t sleep at all till about 2 o’clock in the morning.

“Stay there, I want spooning,” Robert tells him, and Aaron puts his hands up.

It’s how they finish their evening, including a soppy photographic Facebook status with Robert hiding his face in Aaron’s top where he’s been laying on Aaron’s chest to watch telly.

Maybe it’s foolish to live inside their own world all the time where everything is full of love and happiness and pretend that those comments aren’t the norm. But Aaron can’t make them go away, he can’t fix that for Robert. All he can do is remind him that what they have is more than that.

It’s what he thinks about when it happens. Every kiss, every touch, every spoken and unspoken dedication of love between them. A marriage built out of more than two people meeting and deciding to be together. They’ve fought, they’ve cried, they’ve torn shreds into each other, and here they are, stronger for it. Aaron wouldn’t change Robert for the world. Even if the world would like to change them.

His notifications light up with likes and hearts in the comments _. Yeah, their world is tons better_. And when Robert comes back down, putting himself back into the circle of Aaron’s arms like that’s the only place he’s ever meant to be, it’s perfect.


End file.
